The Sea Wolf's Mate (Hideaway Cove 2)

“They won’t have to worry about that anymore.” There was a strange growly undertone to Arlo’s voice. It wasn’t threatening, though. If anything, it reminded Jacqueline of watching him curl around the kids downstairs. Warm and protective.

“It’s amazing they’ve made it this far. Impressive, I should say. But I bet they’re more than ready to stop being tough adventurers and just be kids again.” Jacqueline’s heart fluttered. “They’re lucky you were nearby.”

“They’re lucky you were.”

Jacqueline snorted. “What, so I could almost get myself drowned in front of them? Add some trauma to everything they’ve been through?”

“I would never have let that happen.”

Jacqueline swallowed. The protective growl in Arlo’s voice was so deep it rumbled in her bones, somehow grounding her and making her feel like she was flying all at once.

She met his eyes and let herself sink into them.

“I guess I’m lucky too, then,” she breathed.

Arlo’s gaze was warm and intense. The way he was looking at her, hopeful and bashful, pupils so dark they made the night seem bright… No one had looked at her like that in years. If ever.

“I’m the lucky one,” he murmured.

He turned back to the pan. Jacqueline tucked her hands into her sleeves, even though she wasn’t feeling the cold anymore. Her damp hair was catching the breeze, but the warmth bubbling inside her swept away all the night’s chill.

Maybe she would get her spring fling, after all.

10

Arlo

They will be safe here. Won’t they?

Doubt had started prickling at the back of his neck when Jacqueline went to bed the night before and now, even the blazing mid-morning sun wasn’t enough to burn it away.

There was no reason the three shifter children wouldn’t be safe in Hideaway. The small town was a sanctuary for all shifters. They’d even taken Arlo in after he turned up in town, all snarled coat and teenaged surliness. Arlo wasn’t sure even his closest friends, Harrison and Pol, knew how much the Sweets meant to him. Neither of their shifters were pack animals. Well, sure, maybe the Sweets weren’t either—he didn’t know how gators lived in the wild—but Ma and Pa Sweets had been better parents to him than his own pack had been after his mother’s death, and now, assuming this Eric didn’t show, they’d do the same for—

He shivered. Why does that feel so wrong?

“Cannonball!”

Dylan whooped and raced along the deck.

*Don’t—* Arlo shouted, but it was too late. Dylan leaped off the side of the boat and landed in the water with a splash, his laughter echoing in Arlo’s mind. Tally, who was sitting beside Arlo and “helping” him steer the rudder, chortled. *We’re not anchored anymore. Don’t make me turn this boat around!*

“He’s okay!” Jacqueline called over from the bows. “Gosh, they’re fast in the water, aren’t they?”

There was a clatter as Dylan launched himself at the boat, shifted back into human shape midair, and scrambled aboard. “That was fun!” he gasped. “I’m going to do it again!”

His excitement fluttered against Arlo’s mind and Arlo laughed despite himself. There was no point trying to reason the kid into behaving, that was for sure. After what the three of them had been through during the storm, this was probably the first chance Dylan had had to cut loose in ages.

Arlo decided to take a different tack.

“Don’t you want to see Hideaway Cove when we come around the bluff?” he asked.

Dylan’s eyebrows shot up. “Are we almost there?”

“You tell me. Can you sense we’re close to other people like you?” The older shifters in Hideaway Cove kept their telepathic presences hidden, but the kids wouldn’t be so careful, especially on a sunny weekend morning. The waves would be singing with excitement.

Dylan scrunched up his face. “Umm…”

*Reach out like you’re trying to talk to someone who’s too far away for you to see,* Arlo advised him.